32 year old mama who fought the good fight against diffuse large B cell lymphoma. This is my story and updates.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Day +7, Tuesday

Kara's Mom again, sorry for the lack of updates. Each day has been getting worse with the mucositis and her mouth/digestive tract. I won't go into details but it is BAD. Each day when the doctor comes in he says "it will be worse tomorrow" and I am thinking how can it get any worse?? But it happens....I feel so helpless as her mother watching her in pain but there is absolutely nothing I can do. A few more days though and she should gradually begin to feel better as her sister's cells start grafting. Hopefully soon she will feel like posting updates again.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

I am Kara's Mom, Lynda, doing the posting for her today. She is not feeling very well today- the chemo is starting to catch up with her. The main thing is her mouth is terribly sore. She is also very tired. This is no surprise and was expected. The GI doctor came in for a visit and has ordered TPN which is basically nutrition given by IV. This will make things easier on her GI tract. This will only be for a couple of weeks until Katina's stem cells start regenerating. Labs are looking good. Now we just wait for those stem cells to find their way to her marrow!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Not really much to report besides getting chemo, and getting some mucocitis coming in my mouth and throat. I havent had all that much energy since getting my sisters stem cells back. She collected over 6 million! We just needed 4, so Im guessing they will store those in case I need a booster at some point. I did have a little hypertensive episode while getting the cells, but nothing alittle Norvasc by mouth couldnt fix. Im still having some bone pain despite being on a Dilaudid drip. Im hoping this pain will go away as soon as my sisters cells start making babies. Im at 0.4 WBC count right nowl and I antcipate dropping more than that. Platelets and RBCs are all within nornal range. Sorry for the lack of updates, Ive been pretty tired. My sister has some pics on her blog, so be sure to head on over to her site (Whitworth family blog) to see those. Anyways, more later!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Day -4, nothing really different. Same chemo, just a little more nausea. Me and my sister hung up about 100 pictures of family and a bazillion of Skylar. I miss her so much! More of the same tomorrow, my sister is having some bone pain, so that means shes makin some bone marrow stem cells! Woot! Keep those prayers coming! Everything is going ok so far.

Well, not much going on today, Ill get VP-16 and Cytoxan around 2pm and those will last about an hour. I get premedicated with Decadron, and Zofran for nausea. I get pretty nauseated after the Cytoxan, and its pretty much goes away with Phenergan. My sister is staying with me while she gets her Neupogen shots, and shes showing some signs of bone marrow activity with some on her bones aching.. which is good for me! Ill report more tomorrow!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Hello all! I finally have been admitted for transplant. I got here to Vanderbilt at 7:30am, and got a room by 9am. For some reason admitting didnt know I was coming! That was all squared away, and now here I am. I had a dose of VP-16 and a dose of Cytoxan today. I had a little nausea with the Cytoxan, but a little Phenergan fixed that right up. I also met with the Palliative Care team today, to manage my bone pain, and anxiety. Dont worry, it doesnt mean hospice or that Im dying, they just handle things like pain and anxiety with more thought than the transplant docs who mostly focus on the transplant itself. They have already put me on a Dilaudid PCA pump, so my pain is a little better. To remind you, my bone marrow is damaged and failing, and while it continues to try and produce cells (causing the pain) it doesnt. WBC level is already down to 1.6 today from 1.8 yesterday. Platelets have dropped from 141,ooo to 114,ooo since yesterday. My sister got here last night around 9:30am, and will start her Neupogen shots in the morning at 8:3oam in the clinic. We hooked the playstation 2 up and played that for a while, and decorated my room with pictures and my little angel statues. Anyways, Im feeling ok, just really nervous about what all this chemo is going to do to my body. So please pray for this transplant to work, and that my organs will be protected. = ) So thats about it for day -6! If you would like to send me something, I dunno, color me something! I love getting mail! Send it to:

Monday, January 12, 2009

I will be admitted on Wednesday, if all goes well. This has been ridiculous the scheduling mess this process has been. I have a bone scan and a few xrays tomorrow just to have to see if anything shows up causing my bone pain. Doc thinks its probably just my bone marrow trying to regenerate, but is unable because of damage. My white blood cell count hasnt come up since my last visit and am stuck at 1.8 WBC and dropped from 55% neutrophils to 4.5%. So the bone marrow isnt working. Anyhow, Ill update more when I know more! Katina, my sister, will be coming in tomorrow night.